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The Rolling Pyramid
As the city guard’s investigation continues to close in on the Garnetcask Brewery and the room full of missing platinum, the party decides it’s not safe to keep their gains here and enact a plan to smuggle it off world to the relative safety of the Rock of Bral. Using casks and crates and spells of magical concealment they ship the incriminating bars off the citadel. Before they continue, Yorick decides it’s finally time to realize one of his dreams, and employs great magics to awaken his long time bear companion, Gilbur. Finally, Gilbur is smarter than the average bear. With their economic goals guaranteed, they decide now is the time to continue the hunt for the original Spelljammer. They travel to the icy planetoid that contains the Arcane pyramid and travel through the rift in the lower levels to the mysterious desert beyond. Blackfist reveals he speaks fluent arachnid and speaks with a nearby desert dwelling scorpion, asking for the location of any nearby human settlements. The scorpion obliges, and the party is able to avoid wandering the desert and it’s many dangers (such as colossal scarab beetles) and head straight to their next destination. In the distance, the party can make out what looks like an immense pyramid, backed by a cloud of dust and sand. Overnight they realize the pyramid is infact moving slowly towards them, kicking up a duststorm behind it. They approach and discover a tall pyramid set upon massive stone rollers, being pushed through the desert by a team of sand colossi. On the front facing of the pyramid sits a statue of a not-quite human man, with a scroll draped across his lap. An ornate headpiece sits atop it’s strangely oblong head. Behind the pyramid is a makeshift shantytown of tarps, broken masonry, wooden sleds and salvaged wagons being dragged behind the pyramid and connected by a network of ropes and nets. The party tries to talk to the desert people among the city, but most are weary and afraid. They discover that a being known as Akkamendes will soon return, and only those faithful to him will be spared his wrath. They are directed to a wagon in the centre of the town where their spiritual leader King Agonias resides, who will answer their questions further. The Blind King Agonias is a frail old man, wearing a lion cloth and a blindfold across his eyes. He has a scroll in his hands and a flask at his side. Men and women stand at his side, fanning his body with palm fronds. As they enter, another man sits prostrate before him. The party cannot hear the conversation, but clearly Agonias is not pleased, and orders his guards to hold the man as he approaches and uncorks his flask. Agonias turns the flask over and a seemingly unending volume of water pours from the magic flask into the petitioners mouth, drowning him where he sits. The party approaches and tries to gather some information. Agonias tells them that the God-King Akkamendes was a great and powerful ruler and conquerer, and that the pyramid is the tomb where he rests. Soon however he will return, and only the chosen will survive, while the rest will perish and turn to dust. Agonias says that he is Akkamende’s voice in this age, and the scroll he carries allows him to hear Akkamende’s will to determine who is worthy and who shall die after his return. Unfortunately for the party, it seems Akkamendes does not deem them worthy, but if they join the petitioners in the city and devote their life to his name, they may yet be saved. Somebody approaches the hearing and says “Agonias, perhaps I should speak to our new guests.” The party turns to see a tall, blue skinned woman with long lanky limbs and a strangely oblong head. The woman pulls them aside and introduces herself as Bahiti, and the party realizes that this woman, and supposedly Akkamendes, are members of the Arcane: the ancient and enigmatic race that invented the spelljammers, and for many ages were the sole controllers of this technology. In fact Bahiti is absolutely shocked and dumbfounded to discover the party has such easy access to spelljammers. Bahiti explains that Akkamendes was no god but simply one of the worst villains of his time. A megalomaniac who abused spelljammer technology to conquer and enslave lesser worlds. Even in death his cruelty was such that he built his very tomb to trundle endlessly across the world, crushing everything in it’s wake. Bahiti came to try to put a stop to it, but when she arrived in her ship which appeared as a red comet to the people of this world, accidentally lit a fire under the cultists who saw it a sign of Akkamende’s return. Bahiti explains that the temple is powered by four ancient elementals, bound and their powers drained. If they are freed and the temple guardian defeated, the pyramid may stop. The party suggests they can help her in return for her help finding the Spelljammer. Bahiti agrees, saying that one of Akkamende’s many claims was that he once captained the Spelljammer. Believe it or not, the party may find more clues in his tomb. Bahiti introduces Neve, one of Agonias’ young handmaidens. Neve says she doesn't believe in Akkamende’s return but came here looking to raid akkamende’s tomb for riches. She’s been in the tomb once before but had to turn back. With her help, they can navigate some of the traps and dangers of the pyramid. They enter the pyramid and begin the search for the four primordial elementals trapped within. They bypass various traps and make short work of several lesser elementals before finding a marvelous room. Not built of sandstone like the rest of the pyramid, but it looks more like a natural cave, with a waterfall and river of gems that runs through the small demiplane. Smitten by the beautiful sight, Hunter tries to grab a ruby that catches his eye but the ruby glows with a brilliant light. With a flash, a person emerges from the ruby and falls to the floor, while hunter X is drawn inside. They find three people trapped within gems in the room, and are able to free Hunter with another empty gem. The group appear to be tomb raiders, and say they came here with Neve looking for treasure. At this point the party notices that Neve is nowhere to be found, she must have disappeared during the confusion. The raiders say that the primoridal earth elemental was here, but trapped them within the gems. Neve was able to use one of the gems to capture the elemental before leaving them behind and escaping. The party continues on, eventually locating the air elemental in a pocket plane with a gleaming sky castle. Ossivir explains that he allowed himself to be bound to this pyramid by akkamendes on one condition: that his mortal enemy, the fire elemental Pasha Bazan, also be imprisoned within the pyramid and forced to suffer for all eternity in an icy demiplane while Ossivir lived on in his sky castle in tranquility and peace. Not seeing a way to convince Ossivir to fight back against his imprisonment, the party moves on and eventually locates the water elemental Zhara, trapped in her watery demiplane by a massive kraken. They free her from her cage and she explains more about the pyramid’s setup. The powers of the four elementals have been drained and used to create a magical guardian known as Aigis. Aigis controls the pyramid and defends the inner levels from intrusion. Additionally, magic wards placed throughout the pyramid would prevent the elementals from leaving their chambers, but this could be bypassed by transporting the elementals in a magic container like those originally used to bind them. If the party can free all four elementals and bring them to the inner tomb where Aigis waits, they should be able to take back their power from Aigis and defeat her. It won’t be quite that simple. Neve has the earth elemental Emek trapped within a soul gem and has fucked off somewhere. Ossivir refuses to cooperate with his rival Pasha, who is trapped somewhere else in the pyramid. And the inner levels of the pyramid are much more dangerous, where the guardian Aigis will use all her effort to prevent the party from breaching the tomb.